We bought 4 split ACs with one having an ionizer for our home in Mumbai. They are all 1.5 ton 18000 BTU/hr 1850 watts and have worked well. We have never checked them for energy efficiency as rated by the company but one never knows.
The problem has always been the service given by service personnel/companies in Mumbai. We have had annual contracts with authorised service centers of LG(Bhushan, Sai enterprises etc) since the beginning but have found the following flaws.
These ppl never come on time. ie the next day as promised. If they do come, after many calls, somebody will just come to check and report the probable flaw instead of bringing the full gear(gas cylinder, welding eqpt etc) (gas leak is very common in bombay because of the salty air’s corrosion effect and ACs need to be periodically filled up relatively sooner than other areas)
The call centre has no coordination system with the service company. What the call centre ppl say is completely at variance with what happens on the ground at the service company. e.g. I booked a complaint with the call center on a sunday afternoon(this was a surprise -working on sundays) and the guy promised that somebody would come over to check and service the AC between 1 and 8pm the next day. The next day I again called up the call centre at around 1.30/2 pm to check whether anything has changed and the person assured me somebody would definitely sort out the problem by today itself. When there was no activity till 5.30pm, I called up the call centre again and was assured that somebody would definitely come by today. On telling that only 2 hours are left and what work will the person be able to do at night in the dark, I was given the number of the service center. On calling up the service center, first the guy couldnot locate my complaint on the PC. Then he said somebody had already come at 10.40am and been told that the house was locked. When I remonstrated that I have been at home all day waiting for the technician, I was assured that the said technician was not contactable and they would DEFINITELY repair the problem by tomorrow between 11am and 1pm. Not satisfied with the service centre’s behaviour, I again called up the call centre to let them know what was going on and the discrepancy in what the call centre ppl said at 1pm and what the service centre ppl were saying about the 10.40am visit. The call centre person assured me that this would be brought to the notice of the owner of the service company and the owner would get back to me on this. I waited but no call came.
It looks as if these service companies operate on a shoestring budget and even though the field technicians have mobiles now(to keep in touch with base camp), they lug around huge cylinders instead of smaller and more portable cylinders. Most of the time, the coordination is weak between base camp and the field or the servicing at one site takes longer than estimated or the repair eqpt is missing simple things(e.g. thin wire to clean the nozzle of the oil burner which does the welding etc etc)(LACK OF PROPER EQPT AND TOOLS LIKE A PORTABLE LADDER, LACK OF PROPER TRAINING, fitting of ACs in places and ways difficult to approach/service, high operating temperature, lack of drinking water, general Indian attitude to service personnel-looking down on them status wise etc etc)
Then I proceeded to find the website of LG on the net in order to make an online complaint and get in touch with somebody else so that the problem could be speedily resolved by the next day atleast. But imagine my astonishment that there was no feedback form or contact us email address/postal address or any telephone number other than the call center number listed inspite of checking both lgindia.com and the global LG website. On the LGindia.com website the call centre number is given as 39010909 which is wrong and instead should be 39889999. They have a form to give the nearest service centre details which also is hopelessly out of date or wrong. My service dealer is not mentioned -sai enterprises.
Now it looks that one way to rate a company is thru its website-specially the after sales service part of the website before buying a product
It was nice to know quite a bit thru other ppl’s reviews and advice on various other airconditioners and I hope more ppl write here so that informed consumers can get better products and better service.